Japanese

As most readers will already know, Eleanor Jorden has spent a distinguished career campaigning to make language teaching a respected academic profession. Jorden does not indulge in empty theorizing: true to her pedagogical ideals, she gives concrete and practical working models where other might write methodological essays. Japanese: The Spoken Language (JSL) is the crowning achievement of this career. . . . More than two decades of thought and research went into the preparation of these materials, and the attention to detail shows. JSL, far and away the most consistent and rigorous language text I know of in any language, is already the most talked about work in the language teaching profession to appear in many years. . . . The text series is arguably the most important contribution to Japanese linguistics since Martin's A Reference Grammar of Japanese appeared in 1975. At the very least, JSL offers more than a pedagogical model; it also contains analyses of the Japanese language to be found nowhere else. There is no other published source for most of Jorden's ideas on grammar and sociolinguistics. The textbook is her forum for academic discourse, and she uses the medium with unmatched skill. . . . Demanding and rewarding. --S. Robert Ramsey, Modern Language Journal Far more than a mere revision of the earlier text. Jorden has introduced important modifications in her grammatical and sociolinguistic analysis as well as in the pedagogical approach. An impressive array of audio and video materials have been added to supplement the text. . . . Jorden makes a strong case for the romanization system used in her text. . . . Jorden takes great care to relate the language to the society and the culture where the language is spoken. . . . [She] is to be congratulated for the strong sociolinguistic emphasis of her text. All lessons have interesting observations and remarks about Japanese society and culture, but always related to some aspects of the language. . . . This is an excellent text. . . . Japanese: The Spoken Language provides an excellent and natural input which is made comprehensible through a variety of means. The sociolinguistic and cultural approach fosters high motivation and interest, therefore a low filter. Exercises, drills, reviews, grammatical explanations, etc., encourage and cause the acquisition of Japanese because they contribute to the comprehensible input and high motivation. . . . This text will be a valuable instrument for the increasing number of students of Japanese. Jorden and Noda should be congratulated for the tremendous amount of work, research, and thoughtfulness in the preparation of this text. --Bernard Saint-Jacques, Canadian Journal of Linguistics One of the most reliable classroom textbooks of Japanese for beginners. . . . JSL1 is a monumental work that enables students to gain oral communicative competence in Japanese. --Yoshiko Nakano, Language